Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) has signed a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) to exclusively stream WWE Network programming in Indonesia on the Disney+ Hotstar service.
What Happened: According to a Deadline report, the Indonesia offering will begin on Jan. 30 with the presentation of the Royal Rumble from St. Louis. The programming will be presented in both English and Bahasa Indonesia, the local language. The financial aspects of the new partnership were not disclosed.
Disney and WWE have partnered before, with some of the latter’s programming including WrestleMania being broadcast on ESPN and WWE’s weekly Raw and SmackDown productions being re-aired on Hulu after their linear premiere. However, the Hulu re-air rights are scheduled to expire later this year.
WWE President Nick Khan praised Disney as “the gold standard in creating iconic intellectual property that serves as the backbone for international business growth” and predicted the introduction of WWE “to new audiences in the region as Disney+ continues to expand its reach internationally.”
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Why It Matters: Deadline reported that Disney and WWE have held discussions for streaming rights in markets outside of the U.S., but the Indonesian agreement is the first between the countries.
Disney is seeking to reach 350 million total streaming subscribers by the end of 2024 and is aggressively focused on the Asian nations to achieve that goal. Disney+ Hotstar, which premiered in 2020, accounts for more than one-third of Disney+’s 118.1 million global subscribers.
Within Indonesia, the WWE live events will be available at no additional cost on Disney+ Hotstar as part of a standard subscription.
“As home of the best global and local language content, we’re excited to welcome the extensive library of content from WWE Network to the ever-expanding slate of Disney+ Hotstar,” said Vineet Puri, Disney’s general manager for Indonesia. “With this new content on Disney+ Hotstar, we hope to expand our reach and engage even more audiences in Indonesia.”
Peacock, the streaming service for Comcast Corporation’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) NBCUniversal unit, acquired the U.S. streaming rights to WWE’s programming in January 2021 for $1 billion. That agreement is scheduled to run through 2026.
Photo courtesy of WWE.
